Computing circa-1981 - Printable Version
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Computing circa-1981 - vishnu - 07-04-2022
As I'm fond of pointing out, I graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1985 (yeah, I know, I'm one of those *old* dudes!). I was a student in the College of Physics and Astronomy, and in that college the computer we used the most was a Control Data Corporation beast they creatively named "Meritss." Feeling nostalgic over what is a holiday weekend here in the US, I decided to do a bit of searching on that computer, and this incredibly cryptic document from the University Computer Center popped up. I feel like I know an awful lot about computers, but scanning through this document I have NO IDEA what these computer professionals are talking about! By no means should anyone actually try to read this, but it definitely merits a scan to see what the state of the art of in computing looked like 40 years ago, link:
https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/173199/v06n11.pdf
RE: Computing circa-1981 - Shiunbird - 07-07-2022
Man, if I were to bet, I'd say you are ˜40. =)
edit:
The University of Minnesota .is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
AND
Hear! Hear! The important concepts are "user friendly," ~·simple to use," "human oriented," and I'm in full agreement with Andy about the need to strive for those attributes in our systems
caught my eye.
It's quite fascinating how we had to care about the very basics that we all take for granted.
(and now computers lag to draw input - thanks to MS Office and Electron apps)
RE: Computing circa-1981 - vishnu - 07-09-2022
(07-07-2022, 04:49 PM)Shiunbird Wrote: Man, if I were to bet, I'd say you are ˜40. =)
Ha ha, yeah because I graduated from the university when I was three! 😆
(07-07-2022, 04:49 PM)Shiunbird Wrote: The University of Minnesota .is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
AND
Hear! Hear! The important concepts are "user friendly," ~·simple to use," "human oriented," and I'm in full agreement with Andy about the need to strive for those attributes in our systems.
caught my eye.
It's quite fascinating how we had to care about the very basics that we all take for granted.
(and now computers lag to draw input - thanks to MS Office and Electron apps)
What gets me the most about that document is the plethora of acronyms, that the authors obviously felt everyone on the distribution list would understand. One of the first applications that the UNIX coders at AT&T developed for "end users" was a text editor. With the hope that the people using it would not need to have expertise in the underlying operating system. Obviously that was not the case yet in 1980...